Rev. Kenneth Brighenti

Catholicism For Dummies


Скачать книгу

responds differently — at different levels, at different times, and in different ways. Some reject it, some ignore it, and some treat it casually. Others cherish their faith deeply. As the adage goes: For those who believe, no explanation is necessary, and for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.

      Catholic faith involves more than just believing that God exists. It’s about believing in God as well as whatever God has revealed. Objectively, you can look at faith as the sum total of the truths God reveals, which form the basis for the doctrines of the Church and are often called the deposit of faith — the doctrines of the Church. Subjectively, you can consider faith as your personal response (assent) to those revealed truths.

      Other revelations, such as the existence of God, can be known by using human reason alone (see the later section “Backing Up Your Faith with Reason: Summa Theologica”), but God reveals these truths directly anyway because not everyone understands them at the same time and in the same way. The essence of these revelations can be — and is presumed to be — knowable to anyone with the use of reason; so, for example, someone can’t claim he didn’t know it was wrong to commit murder. But because of original sin (see Chapter 8), some of the applications and distinctions of these basic truths require more reasoning and thinking. To even out the playing field, God revealed some important truths so that even those people who aren’t intelligent or quick-minded won’t be caught off guard.

      

As for what God’s revealed truths are, the most concise answer is His word. The Word of God is the revelation of God to His people. What is the Word of God? Catholics believe that the Word of God comes in two forms:

       The written word: Known also as Scripture or the Bible

       The spoken word: Also called the unwritten word or Sacred Tradition

      Both the spoken and the written word come from the same source and communicate the same message — the truth. The written word and the spoken word of God are not in competition with one another, nor do Catholics believe one at the expense of the other. Rather, the written word and the spoken word have a mutual partnership. Whenever and wherever the Bible is silent on an issue or its meaning is ambiguous or disputed, the spoken word (Sacred Tradition) steps in to clarify the matter. Catholics believe that God’s word reflects what’s in His mind, and because God is all truth and all good, His word conveys truth and goodness. Catholics have deep respect for and devotion to the Word of God.

      Faith in the written word: The Bible

      Catholicism is a biblical religion. Like all Christian religions, it cherishes the Bible as the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and revealed Word of God. Having faith in the following aspects of the Bible is crucial to being Catholic:

       The belief in the Bible as one of the two channels of revelation

       The literal and figurative interpretation of the biblical text

       The belief in the Catholic Bible as the most authoritative text

      Believing in two forms of revelation

      Catholic Christianity and Eastern Orthodox Christianity believe in one common source of divine revelation (God Himself), but they believe the revelation is transmitted to us through two equal and distinct modes: the written word (the Bible) and the spoken word (the unwritten word). Protestant Christianity regards the Bible as the only source of divine revelation. Another way of looking at it is to think of some Christians as seeing only one channel of revelation — sola scriptura, which is Latin for “Scripture alone” and Catholic Christians as seeing two channels of revelation — both the written word and the unwritten word of God. (Just divert thine eyes to the later section “Faith in the spoken word: Sacred Tradition” for an explanation of what the unwritten word is.)

      Interpreting sacred literature both literally and figuratively

      Catholics regard the Bible as the inspired and revealed Word of God, but it’s also seen as a collection of sacred literature. Rather than just looking at the Bible as one big book, Catholicism treats the Bible as a collection of smaller books under one cover: the Word of God written by men yet inspired by God. Since the time of the Reformation, opinion on the interpretation of the sacred text has differed significantly. Some Christians hold for a literal interpretation of every word and phrase of Scripture; other Christians hold for a faithful interpretation, which is sometimes literal and sometimes not. (In other words, some text is meant to be interpreted figuratively.) Catholics belong to the second camp.

      The Bible tells the history of salvation, but it’s much more than a history book. It contains the Psalms of David — songs that the king wrote in honor of God — yet the Bible is much more than a hymnal. It contains poetry, prose, history, theology, imagery, metaphor, analogy, irony, hyperbole, and so on. Because it’s not exclusively one form of literature, as you would have in a science textbook, one needs to know and appreciate the various literary forms in the Bible in order to interpret it as the author intended.

      BIBLE TRIVIA

      Want a few interesting Bible tidbits? You got